This will be a fairytale weekend at Westfield High School (WHS) when the school theater program stages Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella from Nov. 9 to 11 at the WHS auditorium, 18250 N. Union St, Westfield. Shows will be at 7 p.m. each night with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m.
Anyone in the community who would like to buy tickets for $15 each can do so online at WestfieldTheatreChoir.com.
Photo provided
According to WHS Director of Theatre M. Lance Grubb, when the decision was made to do a fairytale show this year, they chose the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella because they thought this one was the best adaptation for the students.
“It’s mainly known for the teleplay that Whitney Houston and Bernadette Peters were in,” Grubb said. “This is one of our larger casts. We have 75 kids total and that’s between cast and crew and that’s all high school students.”
Photo provided
When asked what it takes to put on a high school show with 75 people involved, Grubb told The Reporter is requires a big story to tell, and it helps that Cinderella has an ensemble, so they were able to make the cast as large as they needed to accommodate talent.
“To do that, we have to take a lot of a lot of time and effort and putting it into our audition process,” Grubb said. “Every student has to do a singing audition and acting audition and a choreography audition. So that way we can make the best decisions for who’s going to be in what role and who can be on tech as well. So we do a tech application process. So that’s for anybody that works backstage, whether it’s prop, makeup or costume, plot, a scene rendering for what they think the show could use. And we kind of evaluate them on that on those qualities.”
According to Grubb, one of the largest standouts in this production is Amaya Smith.
“She plays our fairy godmother, and she just has a way of bringing out characterization and character development,” Grubb said. “It’s hard to teach that. She just has like this inkling of knowing what needs to be done at what time before I could even tell her what to do.”
Photo provided
Another thing Grubb said will make this production special is the contributions of the volunteers.
“I want to say how much we appreciate how much goes into the show without the parent volunteers and the community volunteers and sponsors we have,” Grubb said. “We couldn’t put on the productions we do.”
Some of those sponsors include Samantha’s Royal Celebrations, Savvy Décor, Card my Yard, Sam & Adrianne Epstein, Courtney & Josh Bryant, Camtoonist Designs, and Westfield Theatre & Choir Boosters Association.
You can see the WHS production of Cinderella Nov. 9 to 11 at the WHS auditorium, 18250 N. Union St., Westfield. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at WestfieldTheatreChoir.com.